Blog by Chloe Cartwright, BSW, RSW, ABR

100 Interesting facts

To get everyone in the Christmas mood here
is some easy reading for the festivities.
100 Things you may not know about Canada and its wonderful people:

Youtube megastar Justin Bieber
was born and bred in Ontario. He is the
first artist to have an amazing seven songs from a debut album on the Billboard
Hot 100 (US singles chart).

The tallest peak in Canada is
Mount Logan in the Yukon standing at 19,541ft and it is the 2nd
highest in North America after Mount McKinley.

The Canadian motto is “A Mari
Usque Ad Mare” (Latin) which translated is “From Sea to Sea”. Alberta’s provincial motto is ‘Fortis et
Liber” which means “Strong and Free”.

Aboriginal people are thought to
have come to America 20,00 to 30,000 years ago when Alaska was still joined with
Asia. That’s why they call themselves
First Nations, because they were the first people to settle the continent.

Canada has a massive 125,567 miles of
coastline.

The world’s biggest indoor
shopping mall up until 2004 was West Edmonton Mall. It now ranks fifth but can still boast that
it is the largest mall in North America.

Believe it or not, Canada has it’s
own desert. Osoyoos in South Okanagan British
Columbia regularly exceeds temperatures of
38˚C.

Canada is the 2nd
biggest country in the world with a whopping 3,854,085 sq miles of land.

The 80s UK TV breakfast show the
Wide Awake Club with Timmy Mallett, launched the career of Canadian Mike
Myers. He used to have a segment called
the Sound Asleep Club.

10. Canada
exports more than $145 million worth of maple syrup every year.

11. The
first five seasons of 90s top sci-fi show X-Files were shot in Vancouver,
British Columbia.

12. Nickelback,
who have sold over 50 million albums worldwide and rank in the top twenty best
selling music acts of all time, come from Hanna, Alberta.

16. The
Canadian dollar is widely known as the loonie and the two dollar coin as the
toonie. The former because it bears the
image of the common loon, a bird which is well known in Canada. The latter because it’s a combination of
“two” and “loonie”.

18. Kim
Cattrall of Sex and the City fame moved from UK to Courtenay, British Columbia
when she was just 3 months old. She now
holds dual citizenship for both countries.

19. The
Progressive Conservatives won control of the Alberta provincial government in 1971
and they’ve been there ever since.

20. Calgary
boasts the most sunshine hours in Canada.

21. Although
born in Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell emigrated to Canada at the age of 23. Therefore, the telephone, was actually
invented in Canada, albeit by a Scot!

22. Vancouver has the biggest Chinatown in North
America.

23. Caesar
Cocktail or Bloody Caeser is a drink created and mostly drunk in Canada. It contains vodka, Clamato (a blend of tomato
juice and clam broth), hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce and is served with
ice and celery in a salt-rimmed glass.

24. The
world’s largest pysanka is located in Vegreville, Alberta. It is in fact a giant sculpture in the form
of the Ukranian style Easter egg and is 31ft long and weighs 5,512lbs!

25. Golden
Globe Award winner Jim Carrey was born in New Market, Ontario and now has dual
citizenship – Canadian/American.

26. The
world’s biggest cache of dinosaur remains was found at South Saskatchewan
River. Named the Hilda Archaeological
Site, it is approximately 76 million years old.

27. The
word Canada comes from Kanata, a native word for village or town.

31. The
biggest ever Alberta meterorite fell near to the town of Abee in 1952. It weighed a whooping 107 kilograms. It was actually quite a rare one and the
largest of its type – enstatite chondrite - ever found.

32. The
game of basketball was invented by a Canadian, James Naismith.

33. Although
his father was American and his mother English, Keanu Reeves decided Canada was
the country for him and is a naturalized Canadian.

34. The
coldest temperature on record ever recorded was at Mount Logan in 1991 when a
freezing temperature of -77.5˚C was reached.
COLD!!!!

35. The
5 Great Lakes: Huron, Superior, Michigan Erie and Ontario hold 21% of the
world’s surface fresh water. They are
all bordered by America and Canada except for Lake Michigan which is entirely
in USA.

36. Eddie
“The Eagle” Edwards literally lept to fame at the Calgary Olympics in 1988
endearing him to people across the globe.
He set the British record for ski jumping at 73.5m.

37. Brokeback
Mountain and Legends of the Fall were filmed in various locations around
Canada, but mainly Alberta.

38. Calgary City
skyline is used to represent downtown Metropolis in Superman 2.

39. Michael
J. Fox, borm in Edmonton, Alberta, was
inducted onto the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2000 and onto the Hollywood Walk of
Fame in 2002. He was inducted as an
Officer of Canada in May 2011 for his outreach and fundraising work for
Parkinson’s disease.

40. Lacrosse
is the national sport.

41. The
scientifically discounted Sasquatch, more commonly known as Bigfoot, has been
sighted on a regular basis in Manitoba.

42. The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have contributed development money to several
BBC programmes, the most successful being Doctor Who.

43. The
Canada/USA borderline is the longest border in the world at 5,525 miles long
(including border with Alaska).

44. Highest recorded temperature recorded for
Canada was in Saskatchewan in 1937. A
balmy 45˚C was reached. Although
Gleichen in Alberta reached 46.1˚C in 1903 but it was not officially monitored
by Environment Canada.

45. Stephen
Harper, the Prime Minister for Canada studied at University of Calgary and has
his private residence in the City too.

46. Cool Runnings the popular film from the 90s is
true. It is about the Jamaican bobsled
team trying to make it in the 1988 Winter Olympics, and was mostly filmed at
Canada Olympic Park, Calgary.

47. Black
bears are agile climbers and can climb up trees if they need to. Grizzlies have also been known to climb a
short way up trees too.

48. The
biggest temperature shift in Alberta was recorded at Pincher Creek in
1966. I t started at -24.4˚C and rose to
21.7˚C in just two hours. This was
caused by a chinook wind.

49. Sylvan
Lake, Alberta, boasts the only inland lighthouse between the West Coast and the
Great Lakes.

50. Captain James T.Kirk, played by the youthful
looking William Shatner, shared the first inter-racial kiss on TV in the
USA with Lt. Uhura , way back in 1968.

51. Spruce
Meadows is ranked either first/second best show jumping venue in the world
(depending on what review you read). Its
main rival is in Aachen, Germany.

52. Baffin
Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the fifth largest island in the
world. Vancouver Island is just 43rd
on that same list!

53. Queen
Elizabeth II is the Queen of Canada as it is a member of the Commonwealth.

54. “O
Canada” the national anthem, was originally written in French and had to be
translated into English in the early 1900s.

55. Eilleen
Regina Edwards, aka Shania Twain, born in Windsor, Ontario can lay claim to the
best selling country album of all time.
“Come on Over” has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

56. The
last countrywide census that was taken was in 2006. That year, 236,758 immigrants were
recorded. By state of origin, China was
the biggest ‘sender’ closely followed by India and Phillipines.

57. The
estimated population of Canada in 2011 is over 34,500,000.

58. Coronation
Street is broadcast on CBC (a Canadian TV channel). It was approximately 10 months behind with
shows but has recently being showing two episodes every weekday in order to
catch up with ITV (UK) showings.

59. Hudson
Bay is the 2nd largest bay in the world (Bay of Bengal is 1st).

60. Trans
Canada Highway is the Canadian highway system that joins ten provinces. It is one of the world’s longest highways and
it is a staggering 4,990 miles long.

61. The
longest river in Canada is the Mackenzie River with its source in Thutade Lake,
and its mouth at Beaufort Sea, it is 2,635 miles long.

62. Calgary
has the affectionate nickname of CowTown but has been called the Sandstone City
before now as it is very easily found in the area.

63. Banff
is the home of World TV Festival Awards every year. Celebrity spotters in Banff may have seen
Lisa Kudrow, Howie Mandel or Ed Asner getting to the venue this year. Previous speakers have included: Ricky Gervais, William Shatner and Nigel
Lythgoe.

64. Canadian
musicians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young both contracted the polio virus at a
young age.

65. Canada
is member of the G8.

66. Alberta
has a dinosaur named after it – the Albertosaurus sarcophagus.

67. Celine
Dion, born in Charlemagne, Quebec sang the title track to the Walt Disney animated
classic “Beauty and the Beast”.

68. Canola
used to be a Canadian speciality crop although it is now grown in USA also. It is still a popular cooking oil in Canada
however, and the name Canola is derived from CANadian Oil Low
Acid.

69. As
of October 2011, there are 572,411 registered hockey players in Canada,
including male, female and juniors which is nearly 2% of the entire population.

70. Ontario
born Bryan Adams’ father was a British diplomat.

71. Although
not always the case, you know have to be a Canadian citizen to join the ranks
of the RCMP.

72. Many
public Holidays in Canada, also known as statutory holidays, are observed
nationwide but each province and territory has its own holidays as well. Alberta currently has 5 nationwide
holidays, 4 provincial holidays and 3 optional holidays (Easter Monday,
Heritage Day and Boxing Day).

73. Canadian
Pacific Railway has its HQ in Alberta and owns approx. 14,000 miles of track
all over Canada and into the USA.

74. Driving
through Alberta, and come to that, most parts of Canada, you might feel like
you were touring Scotland. There are
well over a hundred places with Scottish names which have been applied by
Scottish emigrants or explorers. In
Alberta you can find Airdrie, Clyde, Stirling, Strathcona County, Holyrood and
further afield there is a St Andrews, Aberdeen, Loch Lomond, Argyle, Ayr,
Glasgow and Perth.

75. The
Columbia Icefield, located in the Canadian Rockies, covers an area of 325km2
and is 365 metres thick in some places.

76. The "World's
Largest Dinosaur" is the name of a fiberglass model Tyrannosaurus rex located in
the town of Drumheller, Alberta. It stands at 82 ft and is
approximately 4 times bigger than a life sized T-Rex.

77. Vulcan,
Alberta has capitalised on its’ name and has built a Star Trek Starship
Enterprise which is just under 10 metres tall.
It also hosts an annual convention which attracts hundreds of fans from
around the world. Vulcan, is also known
as the “Wheat Capital of Canada”.

78. Canada
won the most golds in the 2010 Winter Olympics, with a total of 14.

79. The
highest restaurant in Canada, the Panoramic Summit, is at the top of Banff’s Sulphur
Mountain.

80. Icewine
is a major export for Canadian wineries.
The two largest wine-producing regions are Okanagan Valley in BC and
Niagara, Ontario.

81. Brit
and Grammy Award winners Arcade Fire are based in Quebec Canada and consist of
a husband and wife duo along with the other members!

82. Uncle Buck aka
Ontario born John Candy, was a co-owner of Canadian Football League's Toronto
Argonauts and along with the team took home the 1991 Grey Cup beating Calgary
36-21 in the final.

83. Vancouver
Island is the most seismically active region in Canada. It is actually very close to the Pacific Ring
of Fire. In 1946 an earthquake there
registered 7.3 on the Richter Scale, the strongest ever recorded on land in
Canada.

84. Although
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada it is only the fourth largest city in the
country.

85. The
Canadian Space Agency along with University of Calgary, the City of
Yellowknife, and Astronomy North have created AuroraMAX. This allows skywatchers to log on to a live
broadcast to view the Aurora Borealis (more commonly known as the Northern
Lights). The most active period the
Sun’s 11 year cycle is expected to peak in 2013 and will consequently produce
the most active auroras.

86. A
recent survey suggests that over a half of all households in Canada own a dog
or cat.

87. More
than half million people attend the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto every
year. The parade started over 100 years
ago and can lay claim to being the oldest annual parade in the world.

88. French
Canadians, sometimes known as Francophone Canadians, constitute the second
largest ethnic group in Canada after English Canadians and before Scottish
Canadians.

89. Canada
comprises 10 provinces and 3 territories.

90. Calgary
Stampede roots are traced back to 1886 when the Calgary and District
Agricultural Society held its first fair.
It now lays claim to being the Largest Outdoor Show on Earth.

91. Head-Smashed-In
Buffalo Jump gets its name from a poor sole who got to close to the
action. The young man wanted to witness
the bison being driven over the cliff to their death. Unfortunately slightly more than he
anticipated came along and he was pinned against the cliff wall and
unfortunately crushed to death. HSIB
Jump is North America’s oldest and largest bison hunting jump site.

92. The
tallest totem pole stands 173 feet tall and is in Alert Bay, British Columbia.

93. There
are over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across in
Canada.

94. Whistler
Blackcomb is a major ski resort in Vancouver.
It is the largest in North America and can boast the highest and longest
unsupported cable car span in the world.

95. All
RCMP dogs from the whole of Canada are trained at a facility in Innisfail, near
the City of Red Deer and public demonstrations are regularly offered.

97. England
midfielder, Owen Hargreaves who has over 40 caps to his name, was actually born
in Calgary, Alberta.

98. The
Roman Catholic ruled that the beaver, the national animal of Canada, was in
fact a fish and therefore it could be eaten on Fridays during Lent.

99. The
Athabasca Oil Sands deposit is the largest known reservoir of crude bitumen in
the world and the largest of three major oil sands deposits in Alberta, along
with the nearby Peace River and Cold Lake deposits.

It’s a great place to live!!!!!

Merry Christmas to one and all and a Happy
New Year!

Written by Fran, December 2011

This entry was posted on December 21st, 2011
| Posted in Life in Canada